Showdown at Yellow Butte (1983) Read Online Free PDF

the rider who had been observing them; therefore, there was another rider out there somewhere. Who was he?
    'You're ridin' quite a ways from home, Sue," Shaw interrupted. "You think that's wise?"
    "I can take care of myself, Dornie " Her reply was cool, and Kedrick saw blood rise under Shaw's skin. 'However, I came to warn you, or Captain Kedrick, if he is in charge. It won't be safe to ride any further. McLennon called a meeting this morning and they voted to open fire on any party of surveyors or strange riders they see. From now on, this country is closed. A rider is going to Mustang tonight with the news."
    "There she is," Goff said dryly. 'They are sure enough askin' for it! What if we ride on, anyway?" Sue glanced at him. "Then there will be fighting,' she said quietly.
    'Well," Poinsett said impatiently, 'what are we talkin ' for? We come here to fight, didn't we? Let's ride on an' see how much battle they got in them."
    Tom Kedrick studied the girl thoughtfully. She was pretty, all right, very pretty. She lacked the quiet beauty of Connie Duane, but she did have beauty. "Do they have scouts out?' he asked.
    She glanced at him. "Not yet, but they will have." She smiled. "If they had I'd never have dared ride to warn you.'
    `Whose side are you on, Miss Laine?" Kedrick asked.
    Dornie's head came around sharply and his eyes blazed. Before he could speak, Sue Laine answered for herself. "That decision I make for myself. My brother does not make it for me, nor any one of them. They are fools! To fight over this desert!" Contemptuously, she waved a hand at it. "There's no more than a bare living on it, anyway! If they lose, maybe we can leave this country!"
    She swung her horse abruptly. "Well, you've had your warning. Now I'll go back. b e ridin' your way," Shaw interposed.
    Her eyes swung back to him. "Don't bother!" Then she turned her attention deliberately to Kedrick and measured him again with her cool eyes, a hint of a smile in them now. "If anybody comes, let Captain Kedrick come. They don't know bins!"
    Somebody in the group chuckled, and Dornie Shaw, his face white as death, swung his horse. His teeth were bared, his right hand poised. "Who laughed?" he said, his voice almost trembling.
    "Miss Laine," Kedrick said quietly, "I think Dornie Shaw could make the trip better than L He knows the country."
    Shaw's eyes glittered. asked: who laughed?" Kedrick turned his head. "Forget it, Shaw." His voice was crisp. "There'll be no fighting with other men in this outfit while I'm in command!"
    For an instant, Donnie Shaw held his pose. Then his eyes, suddenly opaque as a rattler's, swung toward Kedrick. "You're tellin' me?" Incredulity mixed with sarcasm.
    Tom Kedrick knew danger when he saw it, but he only nodded. "You, or anybody, Dornie . We hav e a job to do. You've hired on for that job as much as any man here. If we begin to fight among ourselves we'll get nothing done, and right now we can't afford to lose a good man. s carcely think," he added, 'that either Keith or Burwick would like the idea of a killing among their own men."
    Shaw's eyes held Kedrick's and for an instant there was no sound. A cicada hummed in the brush, and Sue Laine's horse stamped at a fly. Tom Kedrick knew in that instant that Dornie Shaw hated him. He had an idea that this was the first time Shaw had ever been thwarted in any purpose he held. Then Shaw's right hand slowly lowered. "Yuh got me on that one, Cap'n," his voice was empty, dry. reckon this is too soon to start shootin' an' old man Burwick is right touchy."
    Sue Laine glanced at Kedrick, genuine surprise and not a little respect in her eyes. "I'll be going. Watch yourselves!"
    Before her horse could more than start, Kedrick asked-,-- 'Miss Laine, which of your outfit rides a long-legged grulla?"
    She turned on him, her face pale. `A grulla?" `Yes," he said, 'such a rider has been watching us most of the morning, and such a rider is not over a half mile away now. Also," he added, "he